Press Releases

January 14, 2021

• CEMEX Ventures invests in a disruptive offsite construction method to relieve the global housing crisis, with a clear focus on sustainability, quality and affordability.
• Modulous offers an answer to the housing requirements in the UK, where they are working on different residential schemes and projects to achieve sales of £25 million in the pilot year.

CEMEX Ventures, CEMEX's Corporate Venture Capital and open innovation unit, announced today its investment in Modulous, a company with a disruptive offsite construction system, enabled by a digital platform, to allow the high-speed delivery of quality, sustainable and affordable homes. This will transform the construction process as it is currently known, providing the industry with a unique modular construction solution.

It has become apparent that modular construction, in its current form, is not efficient. Although it does improve speed and quality of the build process, it needs to make significant improvements to solve the housing crisis. London-based startup Modulous offers a new approach to increase the home production for the UK and support ambitions to meet the housing requirements for the year 2050, when 3 billion people are expected to live in cities, representing 70% of the population.

Modulous aims to achieve this through a new construction approach based on a highly engineered kit-of-parts that enables the delivery of high-quality affordable homes at scale and pace. The software platform leverages artificial intelligence, generative design and 5D BIM modelling providing a fully integrated supply chain solution.

By digitizing the entire materials supply chain management, Modulous reduces the time and cost overruns common in the construction process. By decentralizing operations this solution can scale rapidly as assembly of the modules is carried out by companies local to the final site. The construction system is easy to assemble, converting the kit of parts into homes in hours instead of months, and further reducing the industry shortage of professionalization.

Through their innovative approach, Modulous has already secured a large pipeline of projects across the UK and Europe. It is currently preparing the delivery of a £6.5m residential scheme in London using its smart design and construction system that will achieve completion 12 months ahead of schedule.

"By including Modulous in our portfolio, we offer the industry a unique offsite construction model" said Mateo Zimermmann, head of CEMEX Ventures investment in Modulous. "After several years of exploring how this segment is advancing, we placed our trust in this team that perfectly combines engineers, designers, and technological developers. The Modulous innovative approach enables the supply chain to deliver sustainable and high-quality homes, significantly reducing time and costs. Modulous does not require additional capex, which makes it globally scalable. This team is going to revolutionise the residential development industry.”

"Although we are currently focused on the south of England, where we expect to achieve sales of £25 million in the pilot year, we want to offer a global solution to housing needs in Europe," said Chris Bone, Co-Founder and Managing Director by Modulous. "We are delighted to be part of CEMEX's global vision for offsite construction and future collaborations to launch advanced and tailored materials through collaboration in research and development. Having the support and access to customers and suppliers of CEMEX and CEMEX Ventures makes us a more relevant player in the industry where we participate".

Modulous is one of the winners of the 2020 Construction Startup Competition, the annual startup challenge organized by CEMEX Ventures. This startup was also part of the Top 50 ConTech Startups list in 2019.

About Modulous
Modulous is an award winning, London-based construction technology business that has developed a digital platform and smart kit of parts to enable the delivery of high-quality, sustainable and affordable homes, at scale and pace. The dynamic team of engineers, designers, and software developers has conceived a unique approach that aims to transform the delivery of homes and support ambitions to address the global housing crisis. With its values firmly rooted in creating sustainable places for people to live, at the speed that is needed, Modulous aims to cause a seismic shift within the global construction process. For more information about Modulous, please visit: www.modulous.com.

About CEMEX Ventures
Launched in 2017, CEMEX Ventures focuses on helping to solve the main challenges and capitalize on the opportunity areas in the construction ecosystem through sustainable solutions. CEMEX Ventures has created an open and collaborative platform to lead the revolution of the construction industry by engaging startups, entrepreneurs, universities, and other relevant actors to tackle the industry's toughest challenges and shape tomorrow's value ecosystem. For more information about CEMEX Ventures, please visit: www.cemexventures.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements that reflect CEMEX Ventures’ current expectations and projections about future events based on CEMEX Ventures’ knowledge of present facts and circumstances and assumptions about future events, as well as CEMEX Ventures’ current plans based on such facts and circumstances. These statements necessarily involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from CEMEX Ventures’ expectations. CEMEX Ventures assumes no obligation to update or correct the information contained in this press release. The content of this press release is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. The information contained in this press release is subject to change without notice, and CEMEX Ventures is not obligated to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. CEMEX Ventures is not responsible for the content of any third-party website or webpage referenced to or accessible through this press release.